Lieutenant Colonel Arthur John Barry (1859-1943) was an English

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Early life

Arthur John Barry was the fourth child of the architect Charles Barry, Jr. and his wife Harriet Gardiner Pitman May. He was born on 21 November 1859 at 5 Woburn Place, Russell Square, Holborn and baptised at St George's, Hart Street, Bloomsbury. He was educated at

Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headma ...

Family

The Barry family was notable in the nineteenth century in the field of architecture and engineering. Barry's grandfather was the architect Sir

Charles Barry Sir Charles Barry (23 May 1795 – 12 May 1860) was a British architect, best known for his role in the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster (also known as the Houses of Parliament) in London during the mid-19th century, but also respon ...

, his father the architect Charles Barry, Jr. and his uncles the civil engineer Sir

John Wolfe Barry Sir John Wolfe Barry (7 December 1836 – 22 January 1918), the youngest son of famous architect Sir Charles Barry, was an English civil engineer of the late 19th and early 20th century. His most famous project is Tower Bridge over the River ...

and the architect

Edward Middleton Barry Edward Middleton Barry RA (7 June 1830 – 27 January 1880) was an English architect of the 19th century. Biography Edward Barry was the third son of Sir Charles Barry, born in his father's house, 27 Foley Place, London. In infancy he was ...

. Arthur John Barry was the last generation of the dynasty. His most significant projects were in China, India, Thailand and Egypt. He married Mabel Maude Josephine Ostrehan (born at Hyderabad, India on 15 July 1864) at St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata on 29 February 1888.

Career

He was articled with his uncle Sir

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

and went to India in 1883. At 24, in association with Chief Engineer in India Sir

Bradford Leslie Sir Bradford Leslie KCIE (1831-1926) was an English civil engineer who specialised in bridges and was a pupil of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. His most notable achievement was the 1887 Jubilee Bridge. Early life Leslie was born in London on 18 Au ...

, he was Chief Engineer in charge of the construction of the

Jubilee Bridge (India) The Jubilee Bridge ( bn, জুবিলি ব্রিজ) is a former rail bridge over the Hooghly River between Naihati and Bandel in West Bengal, India. It provided an important connection between Garifa railway station and Hooghly Gh ...

over the Hooghley River between

Naihati Naihati is a city and a municipality of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Naihati Municipality is one of the oldest in the wh ...

and

Bandel Bandel is a neighbourhood in the Hooghly district of the Indian state of West Bengal. It is founded by Portuguese settlers and falls under the jurisdiction of Chandernagore Police Commissionerate. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Me ...

which was completed in 1887. The bridge is noteworthy as a cantilever truss bridge, constructed entirely by riveting without the use of nuts or bolts in the construction. He was the Executive Engineer in charge of the construction of the bridge over the Damuda River and the work of the Damuda district of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway, of which he was afterwards Superintending Engineer of the Bengal section. He returned to England in 1891 and entered into partnership with his uncle Sir John Wolfe-Barry. In 1901 he entered into partnership with Sir Bradford Leslie as Barry and Leslie becoming in 1906 A.J.Barry and Partners. In England, he was the Chief Engineer to the: *

Chipstead Valley Railway Chipstead may refer to: * Chipstead, Kent * Chipstead, Surrey Chipstead is a predominantly commuter village in north-east Surrey, England, that has been a small ecclesiastical parish since the Domesday Survey of 1086. Its rolling landscape mea ...

* South Harrow Railway * Crowhurst, Sidley and Bexhill Railway He continued to work on international projects and was Joint Consulting Engineer in partnership with his uncle Sir John Wolfe-Barry to the: *

British and Chinese Corporation Jardine, Matheson & Co., later Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., forerunner of today's Jardine Matheson Holdings, was a Far Eastern company founded in 1832 by Scotsmen William Jardine and James Matheson as senior partners. Trafficking opium in As ...

Limited * Chinese Central Railway Limited * Chinese Engineering and Mining Company Limited * Shanghai Nanking Railway * New Harbour and Port of Ching Wang Tao (

Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao (; ) is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei. It is administratively a prefecture-level city, about east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population during the 2020 national ...

) in the Gulf of Pechili *

Bombay Port Trust Mumbai Port Trust (also known as the Bombay Port Trust) is a port which lies midway on the West coast of India, on the natural deep-water harbour of Mumbai (Bombay) in Maharashtra.The harbour spread over is protected by the mainland of Konkan ...

* Kowloon-Canton Railway He was Consulting Engineer to the: * Johore State Railway * Southern Punjab Railway and other projects in India, Thailand (

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

) and Egypt.

Publications

*Arthur John Barry ''Lecture on the Great Siberian Railway: Delivered at the Military School of Engineering, Chatham, December 19, 1900'' London (1900) *Arthur John Barry ''Railway Expansion in China and the Influence of Foreign Powers in its Development'', London (1910)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, Arthur John English civil engineers 1859 births 1943 deaths People from Holborn British bridge engineers Harbour engineers British railway civil engineers People educated at Uppingham School Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Arthur John